OPERA WARS (HB)

Blunt, irreverent, and at times wittily subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera’s colourful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future. Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders—as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator—Caitlin Vincent deftly unravels clichés and presumptions yet, though she always comes back to her veneration for the artform and in these stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most sceptical.